Brandon Howell | MLive.comA study commissioned by Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero's administration shows the costs for a new police headquarters could climb to almost $43 million.

LANSING, MI – Moving the Lansing Police Department and
the 54A District Court to the city-owned South Washington Office Complex could
cost as much as $42.9 million, according to a draft study completed by a
consulting firm.

Records show the city has paid C2AE over $155,000 for the
study, which began in February 2010.

The study lays out the costs for moving the police and
courts into the South Washington Office Complex (SWOC) and varying levels of renovation, including demolishing the existing building and constructing a new
one.

According to the study, demolishing the SWOC and building
a new home for the LPD and the court would cost $42.9 million.

The cost for adding courts to each option hovers around $23 million.

The same option, without adding space for the courts,
would cost $19.8 million and leave the city with a 74,700-square-foot space.

A partial renovation of the building and a new addition
for the police only would be $15.9 million; adding the courts would bring the
total to $39.1 million.

A full renovation of the SWOC and new addition for police
only comes to $16.6 million. Adding the courts in would bring the total to
$39.7 million.

Renovating and expanding the current police department on
May Street, which the city rents from developer Harry Hepler's H Inc., would
cost $6.2 million.

The current space is about 17,000 square feet.

Renovating only a new, vacant space adjacent to the
current space would cost $4.8 million.

C2AE did not consider the cost of incorporating the
district court space into the May Street space, but H Inc. Vice President
Stephen Purchase said he believed the space could accommodate the courts as
well.

He also said C2AE's estimates of cost for the May Street
renovations were high.

"We could do it cheaper than what they've listed," he
said, because his company is experienced in planning and utilizing space for
the police department.

Purchase said the city pays about $340,000 per year in rent, but about $100,000 covers maintenance costs that the city would have to foot the bill for if it moved to the SWOC.

That makes the "true" cost of the building more like $240,000 annually, he said.

If the city chose the $16 million option, and kept its spending the same -- paying $240,000 annually on the building itself -- it would take 66 years to pay off the debt, making it nearly seven decades before the city saw any savings, he said.

"It's a 70-year decision the mayor is asking the Council
to make," Purchase said. "You have to go to the numbers. The numbers don't lie."